Traditional and Current Diagnosis

• Published in: Dengue Diagnostics: The Right Test at the Right Time for the Right Group
• Main Author: Mui W.S.; Raju C.S.
• Format: Book chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Jenny Stanford Publishing 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85183218804&doi=10.1201%2f9781032669564-2&partnerID=40&md5=6552acf8895c1f9fe23efe82cf82d46b

Dengue virus causes a spectrum of illnesses ranging from undifferentiated mild febrile illness to severe dengue hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock syndrome. Diagnosing dengue fever can be challenging due to its signs and symptoms and can be easily confused with other diseases such as influenza, chikungunya, malaria, leptospirosis, and typhoid fever. Clinical diagnosis alone is not always reliable, as dengue has no pathognomonic clinical features from other febrile illnesses (Rathakrishnan & Sekaran, 2013). As there is no specific treatment for dengue, timely and careful clinical management of patients by experienced healthcare providers frequently saves lives. Hence, early definitive detection of infection is essential, and this can be achieved by confirmatory tests of the patient’s samples. Although various laboratory methods are currently used for diagnosing dengue, none fulfill the ideal requirement for both sensitivity and specificity, while also being rapid, simple, and low cost. Newer detection methods for dengue that can fill this acknowledged gap are urgently needed. © 2024 by Jenny Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved.